Jornal de Pesquisa e Terapia de Dependência

Abstrato

Crack in Iran: is it Really Cocaine?

Kazemifar Amir Mohammad, Solhi Hassan and Badakhshan Dariush

Objectives: The illicit drugs currently being distributed across European countries under street- name “crack”contain to a large extent alkaloids derived from cocaine and later on were classified as stimulant drug. However this same street name prevalent in Iran seemingly have no stimulant effects but sort of opioids being produced in clandestine laboratories likely to be made of heroin. In current study we carried out an analysis on illicit drugs under street name of crack discovered and confiscated by Iranian law enforcement police in Arak city in 2009 to make its true formulation clear.

Material& Methods: The current observational descriptive cross sectional study was carried on twenty-two samples under street name “crack” as is common name among drug peddlers or law enforcement police. Following sample extraction, screening test was conducted by thin layer chromatography (TLC) only to be later on confirmed through gas chromatography with mass spectrophotometry (GC/MS).

Results: Diacetyl morphine (heroin) was found in twenty-one unit of twenty-two analyzed samples using TLC method. In addition morphine, codeine, caffeine, noscapine, papaverine, dextromethorphan and acetyl codeine were discovered in samples applying GC/MS method.

Conclusion: Heroin with relatively high purity is the main constituent of the illicit drugs under street name “crack” in Iran. Medical and public awareness raising and education about true nature of this illicit drug and its adverse effects needs to be run to prevent the widespread abuse particularly among teens.